If you’re looking for down home, old school, no-nonsense, house-rocking, kickass electric blues, you’ve come to the right place. Audiences turn out for Juke Joint 5 shows because they value our high energy music and our dedication to the roots of the blues: the vocal feel and guitar mastery of the Mississippi Delta and Chicago’s Golden Age; the raw horn-driven urban jump bands of the 1940′s-50′s; the ecstatic irreverence of early rock and roll with a dash of rockabilly twang.
Dick Lourie (saxophone); Silvertone Steve (guitar); Noah Teshu (drums); Gretchen Bostrom (vocals); Jason Adams (bass). Photo by Heather Balchunas
It is a different kind of blues band. In fact, the comment we hear most is “I like you guys…you play songs other blues bands aren’t doing, songs I haven’t heard before.” We’ll take you back to a time when “the blues” meant just this kind of high-energy music rooted in many different influences, and when the highest compliment was “It’s got a good beat and you can dance to it.”
Vocalist Gretchen Bostrom is both a blues belter and a soulful singer, whose influences include Ruth Brown, Koko Taylor, Dinah Washington, and others deep in the roots of the blues. She is also a highly regarded jazz singer and solo artist on the Boston music scene and works with many of area’s finest musicians. Blues veterans Silvertone Steve on guitar and Dick “the Poet” Lourie on sax are an experienced team—they’ve played together in several bands over the last ten years, and each of them has performed alongside an older generation of blues masters. Dick keeps the old-school spirit alive with visits twice a year to Clarksdale, Mississippi, the home of the Delta blues, where he performed for more than a decade with Big Jack Johnson. Steve was a member of Chicago blues legend J.B. Hutto’s band, the New Hawks. These days his amazing slide guitar can be heard frequently with blues diva Lisa Marie and with the classic rock band The Transistors, as well as on Dick’s two CDs of blues and poetry. Holding the band together is a tight and experienced rhythm section: Bassist Jason Adams is a veteran of blues bands in Connecticut and Colorado. When he’s not with the JJ5, he’s traveling the country to play concerts, festivals and special events with the Dan Lawson Band. Drummer Noah Teshu’s playing is informed by his experience with a variety of American roots and world music styles, as well as his own previous work on guitar. Besides the JJ5, Noah is also a member of the Boston-based Afropop band Kina Zoré.